"Once the ringed city is brought down into ashes. Only then, you have my permission to die."

This mission is made to dispatch and take down a demicorpse who terrorizes the woods connecting to the walled city. According to the case file, this demicorpse is female that hunts for survival and sport alike. However, she does not feed on little girls and instead keeps them locked in a room inside her lair. She would kill any person who walks within her territory and bring any sorts of dolls, flowers and accessories to the little girls she has captured.

She defends her lair with all she had against the regime scouts that were ordered to take her out. Several good men died under her hands, desperately stalling and rescuing nearby civilians caught amidst the battlefield.

"This is too much casualties for one day! Where the hell is our backup!?", said a soldier as he takes cover and trying to mend his wounds.

"Bravo two to HQ, do you copy? We are suffering various injuries. Requesting immediate backup! HQ, DO YOU READ ME!? DAMMIT!", the soldier slams his device into the ground, noticing that his gun was almost out of ammo.

"Sir, all the comm lines have been cut off!", the soldier responds, throwing a grenade at the demicorpse."

"I know, goddammit! Tell me something new for once!"

"MAKE WAY!", a young man shouts, carrying a giant shield made out of an apex of a demicorpse. Another woman follows up behind him as he kneels down and raises his shield upward, allowing the woman to jump on the shield and deliver a devastating blow with her ax.

"It's the huntsmen of the church! We're saved!"

"Keep your panties on. We're not done here.", the woman reveals herself to be none other than Samantha, the right hand of Sister Fiona herself. Aside her was Benedict Sephtis.

Benedict uses his shield to defend an incoming swing from the demicorpse, which left her out of balance.

"Somebody, follow up!", Benedict sticks his shield onto the ground and grabs his shotgun loaded with bronze shells; another weakness of the demicorpse.

Samantha runs in, throwing her ax into the demicorpse's feet, knocking her down as Benedict aims for the limbs. Samantha delivers the finishing blow by pulling her ax from the demicorpse's legs and vertically slamming it onto the demicorpse's heart. She hears a brief "NO!" before she fully slams her weapon down from the demicorpse. As the ax makes direct contact with the flesh of the demicorpse, Samantha once more absorbs the memories of its victim.

The full story was that this person was extremely old, existing at the time period where world war one was happening. She lives on the snowy mountains alongside her sister. They lived as nomadic hunters before an avalanche occurred, making the sister sacrifice herself to save this demicorpse. She was merely five years old when this happened, so her mind has never developed.

She began hunting on her own. Starting with rats, rabbits, then she wanted bigger: deer, elk, wolves, then even bigger: bears, lions, elephants and soon her favorite: humans. She would never harm little girls because she sees herself in them and instead keeping them inside cages. In the end these children still died but not under her hands, but rather from sickness and starvation and whenever this happened she becomes really sad and lashes out on more humans. At this point her memories were foggy and she seemed to be preserved somewhere to live until this present day, but no longer as an ordinary human.

"Damn... not again.", Samantha shakes her head and stands up as Benedict aids her and lets her place her arm over his shoulder.

"What's wrong? Should I call for medical support?", Benedict nervously says as he helps Samantha walk.

"Heh, this bloke worries too much. It's just the same thing happening again.", Samantha smiles and pats the back of Benedict's head.

"Oh... so it's the visions and memories again.", Benedict says in a somewhat sad tone as his eyes look down a little.

"It's no big deal. Go ahead and report back to Sister Fiona. I'll stick around for a bit here, find some possible ciphers for investigation, yeah?", Samantha smiles at Benedict, telling him there's nothing to worry about.

"If you say so... Take care, then. I'm off!", Benedict waves goodbye and zooms off into the distance with the other soldiers.

"Who's the real rotten bastards around here? I don't even know anymore...", Samantha looks up the sky and lets out a sigh of relief.

....

"You see... my dad was drafted into a civil war, while my mom was a researcher doing her part in Samantha's cure for antibodies against the infection back then. Unfortunately, she died in an accident, but I already know that it's some bullshit cover-up by people with high authority. That's why I despise everything about this place. Though I guess I generalized too much..."

"I'm at fault too for going too hard on you most of the time. I didn't even take time to notice that you're going through some stuff. I'm sorry for that.", Uriel responds calmly as he places his hand on Eileen's shoulder.

"You know maybe I was wrong about you. Fine, I admit you're kinda right. I was... less right. Whatever.", Eileen finally reconciles with Uriel and offers a handshake while looking away, flustered and pouty.

"Even steven?"

"Even steven."

Meanwhile, as Benedict walks to go to the cathedral, he notices a rather strange girl around the same age as him, sketching on her notebook. She had white hair and a lolita-like outfit. Benedict was so starstruck on what a girl like her is doing in this place amidst a zombie apocalypse.

"You're in the way. Move.", said the mysterious girl. Benedict didn't realize that she was drawing on her sketch pad, capturing the scenery in front of her as a reference.

"H-Huh? You talking to m-me?", Benedict nervously points at his chest as his face visibly sweats a little.

"I can't see with you on the front.", the mysterious girl calmly adds up, checking on her nails and the progress of her drawing.

"Uh... sorry about that.", Benedict moves to the side and slowly walks behind the girl sitting down to see what she was drawing. She immediately realizes this, however.

"Do you need something?", she asks as she covers her sketch pad a little and turns her head to face Benedict behind her.

"N-Nothing. My bad...", Benedict walks away a few steps and couldn't help to stare back at the mysterious girl once more before heading directly to the cathedral.

"What on earth is that outfit and what on earth is that drawing? Lousy fashion designs and their lousy drawings... I'm never gonna get these things.", Benedict talks to himself on the way to the cathedral.

Alone in the cathedral, sat Fiona near the altar. Her eyes were closed and her body was straight and firm. This calm state of mind has been threatened by a murder of crows taking form into a middle-aged man.

"If it isn't Alexandrite... here to expand your tyranny once more?", Fiona immediately recognizes this presence to be the leader of the Weeping Rose itself.

"I am not here to create chaos. Rather, I am here to warn you of an incoming ordeal coming your way.", Alexandrite takes a few steps near the altar where Fiona immediately wraps her scythe around Alexandrite's neck.

"First, you show yourself in the house of God unwanted and uninvited, and now you choose to threaten me?", Fiona puts her scythe closer to Alexandrite's neck, specifically pushing for his throat.

"You think your faith for the precious God you believe in is enough to stand for this upcoming ordeal? Then I find your efforts of lies... laughable.", Alexandrite responds as more crows begin to appear within the cathedral.

"You think we are fools that would put trust in the enemies of mankind just because of a warning?", Fiona says as the crows fail to swarm her body.

"Yes, but that is irrelevant. What is relevant is you take this time to prepare yourselves while you still have the chance to do so.", the crows have finally stopped, but one flies and stands on Alexandrite's shoulder.

"Why are you doing this?", Fiona slowly releases her scythe away from Alexandrite's neck.

"We have a rouge among our ranks starting their own independent agenda. This was a double crossed alliance meant to hinder both of our respective factions. But do not be mistaken, sister Fiona. Mark my words... all these people you desperately try to protect... will be mine.", another murder of crows appear as the all fly towards Alexandrite, melting him into the darkness.

A few moments later, Pierre arrives within the cathedral with his weapon drawn, ready for action stating that he felt that something was wrong.

"It was just a slight disturbance. There is nothing to worry about, child.", Fiona smiles and sits back down near the altar.

"But sister-", Pierre was still worried for his superior was shushed by Fiona herself, telling him there is nothing to worry about.

....

Confused and internally panicking, Benedict heads for the nearest restroom and washes his face. It was the voices again, speaking to him. All of these in his mind, yet feels like two corporeal beings are talking to him physically in the same world.

"Worthless."

"No... get it together, Ben. It's all in your head... they're not real...", Benedict talks to himself and pulls his own hair. This happens from time to time during his childhood, yet began more often since the apocalypse has happened.

"Worm."

"These will go away soon enough. Just like old times, right...?", Benedict lets out a forced smile, looking down as his legs shake uncontrollably. Suddenly, the voices grew louder and more aggressive than ever before.

"UNWORTHY! UNWORTHY!"

"Happy thoughts Ben... happy thoughts. Heh... frogs are cute.", Benedict slowly looks up to see his face in the mirror, only to see a shadowy figure appearing beside him, slamming him into one of the bathroom stall doors and choking him. He desperately gasps for air, flailing his arms hopelessly in the air trying to fight back. The figure disappeared moments before Renji goes inside the bathroom.

"Uhh... what are you doing down there?", Renji asks with concern mixed with confusion as he looks down at Benedict with disgust.

"I don't suppose you're a guy who believes in ghosts? Kinda? Yeah.", Benedict gets up and fixes his clothes.

"Hmmm... tell me again when this happens. I'll try to find a way to deal with it. In the mean time, let's continue doing our tasks so we can have money for food. Does that sound fine?", Renji asked with a smile, comforting the still terrified Benedict.

"Urgh. This spaghetti is weird. What with the hotdogs? Where's the herbs? This flavor... is really giving me Asian vibes when it comes to the choice of ingredients. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just not really that used to it.", Benedict and Renji went out on the nearby ration supply-giving near the town, unknown to them that Kaiyn was watching from the shadows, ensuring their safety.

...

The way of the Weeping Rose is simple: the strong shall rule the weak. Everyone is given a chance to shine and are able to stand up for themselves, assuming they have the strength and willpower to do so.

Each platoon is given a chain of command. The underlings, which are the disposable and lowest type of footmen, the soldiers who command the underlings as fodder acting like miniature generals to them, then the hierarch who decides what actions for soldiers to take with their underlings. Each underling has the right to overthrow their own respective soldier, same goes for a soldier's hierarch.

This chance of overtaking one's position is called Ritual Combat. This is when a lower-class demicorpse challenges their superior on a one-on-one duel to the death. They battle in an arena with pits of death on each side as they try to push the opposing threat to their doom.

However, when a lower-class demicorpse attacks his or her superior outside of Ritual Combat, they are sentenced to a public execution lasting for a complete twenty-four hours. There stood of course, the main father of all troops, Alexandrite. One demicorpse has completely and surprisingly came from an underling to a soldier in the span of a week.

"I don't know, I just hated the soldier's guts from the get go. I guess I was right that he wasn't worthy of that position.", says Maddox as he wipes his butterfly knife clean, talking to Alexandrite as if he was his equal.

"Overconfidence will get you nowhere. If you have that much belief in your personal abilities then I propose a task for you. Challenge your patriarch, and I will grant you a position as my right hand.", says Alexandrite as he pets a crow that flew on his shoulder.

"It's almost like you can read my mind! But no, I refuse. I'll take his position as the patriarch of my underlings and soldiers, but I refuse to be your right hand man, capiche? Alright, we're done here.", Maddox immediately leaves  and explores the outside world without permission or respect.

...

While all this was happening, the once violent and impulsive Kaiyn lies low within the shady parts of the city. This includes back alleys where the lowlives like punks and prostitutes hung out.

"You have some nerve showing yourself here, kid. Hate to break it to you, but we're gonna have to ask you to leave.", the punk cracks his knuckles and his other friends began to surround Kaiyn.

"Those piercings... heh. You tryna look intimidating or something? Now I'm not sexist, but you're definitely looking like a tranny trying to fit in with the cool kids right now.", Kaiyn keeps his eyepatch intact and wipes dirt off his jacket. The other girls laughed at his joke, and soon even some of the punk's own men.

"You son of a bitch... you have no idea what line you just crossed!", the punk replies in agitation, sweating bullets and having a shaky grip on his knife.

"It's 2020, so I'm pretty sure I do. Everyone gets offended at the lightest of jokes. But do I really look like the person who would care?", Kaiyn's eye meet with the panicking punk, accidentally letting go of his knife and losing his balance.

"And here I thought you'd put up more of at least a few hits. Now listen here before I send you home crying to your mum: I control everything in this area now. Your men, the drugs, everything. Including you, unless you want to end up like the walkers outside, I'd advise you follow everything I say. Are we clear?", Kaiyn grabs the punk by his shirt and glares at him with murderous intent.

"Y-Yes! We are clear, we are so clear!", the punk replied with teary eyes, hoping the best for his own safety.

"Good, now get out of my sight."

The other girls laugh at the once alpha of the back alley. Now that he was overthrown by Kaiyn, he was treated as the boss of the few gangs in there.

Kaiyn secretly buys flowers and candles. No one knows why, and no one dared to question. It was strange to see the boss to get his hands on flowers and candles in the first place. Afterwards, he heads to a nearby plateau outside the walls, free of walkers nearby. There was a shady tree enough to keep the fire of the candles lit. He sets out a carpet and placed food. After this, he places the flowers side by side, followed by the candles. He sets out a portrait of his mother and father near the candles and flowers. So it was all finally clear; today was their death anniversary. He lights up the candles and quietly chants a prayer.

"Lo there do I see my father; Lo there do I see my mother, my sisters and my brothers; Lo there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning. Lo, they do call me, they bid me take my place among them, in the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live forever."